The Adaptation

Howl’s Moving Castle

(Hauru no ugoku shiro)

(Studio Ghibli)

Since first watching an earlier and more acclaimed piece of his, Princess Mononoke, I have found myself taken in by other works of Miyazaki attributed to some enchanting quality in the artful package presented. Howl’s Moving Castle, having observed the film before the novel, was my first introduction to the world these characters inhabited; An industrious society with an absent crown prince, apparently amidst a military struggle between powers with war-craft flying overhead, filled with enough beauty to place the meat of these struggles on the backburner for a large portion of the running time. Very early in the film the main protagonist, Sophie, is cursed by antagonizing-character and early foe, the Witch of the Waste, mystically made to appear old under most circumstances. She sets off on an adventure seeking a change of pace from the lifestyle her appearance is now appropriately suited to, as well as the solution to the problems she would likely claim at first were, most unfortunately, destined to be.